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  #16  
Old 01-20-2010, 11:48 AM
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I have to go back to many experiments we conducted years ago. Why petroleum products where the best way to reduce the rate of the existing oxidation of steel. If you put a dob of grease on a sheet of metal we found that over time the oil component or lower viscosity component slowly flowed away or migrated from the grease. I cannot remember the actual radius. It is enough though that the same is going to occur in the rear cv joints and it will reach the boot.

So you are right if the boot is rubber and that I doubt because of the stiffness of the material. Total rotting of a replacemnt aftermarket boot has not been reported on site either. The makers would not make them of straight rubber and expect to remain in business either in my opinion. I would certainly contact and question the manufacturer of them if rubber is suspect.

I am unaware if the split boots have been redesigned to compensate for the uneven flexability that has semi doomed them from the start. Taking the time to remove and refresh the lubricant in the existing good joints on a car is time well spent. A few replacement clamps should do it if your boots are still good. Many of those joints have not seen any attention for at least twenty years.

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  #17  
Old 01-20-2010, 12:42 PM
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I agree that its a good idea to "change oil" the axles. By default, this is what I essentially did when i rebooted my axles. Although, i will say that the condition of the original lubricant (gear oil) appeared to be good. Also, although my boots appeared to have stress cracks, it was actually well intact upon close examination. It could probably have gone for another 50k miles if i were to guess.

I don't think there should be a concern of oil or grease hastening the deterioration of the boot. The life of the original boots averaged 20-30 years. How much longer do you want? I'm guessing that the new boots would outlast the car.

furthermore, due to the lower position/elevation of the axles, the lubricant should normally stay within the axle cavity.
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  #18  
Old 01-20-2010, 02:53 PM
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I used gear oil in mine 10K+ miles ago. I rebooted using tobybul's posted method, dorman boots from autozoo... so far, so good.

but the wife did not like that I spent $85 on boots for the car, and not her, so we had to get her a pair of Frye's.......so it was quite expensive...
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  #19  
Old 01-20-2010, 03:03 PM
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In general I am with Barry on this..
but it really seems like most of you are totally ignoring the fact that these are spinning items which will be throwing out whatever super duper grease is put on them..

which will stay attached to the inside of the boot..
DOING NO GOOD for the friction surfaces which need them...

BUT oil in there , each time you stop.. will drip or splash some oil onto those surfaces...

That is why they use oil .
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  #21  
Old 01-20-2010, 04:09 PM
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Boot Life Extension

FYI, I did what another member suggested several years and the repair has worked extremely well! I had light cracking (but no perforations) on the peaks and valleys of the boot -mostly the peaks. I cleaned boot very carefully with marine clean (or other degreaser) and then after boot was nice and dry, I sprayed 3M rubber undercoating carefully over each boot doing a 1/4 section at at time on all four boots and both sides. Great results! In fact, when I finally reboot this spring, I am going to spray 3M product over new boots so it serves as a sacrificial cover to protect new rubber from oxidation, debris, etc. Try this, those of you you have worn lightly cracked boots, works great!
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  #22  
Old 01-20-2010, 05:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by leathermang View Post
In general I am with Barry on this..
but it really seems like most of you are totally ignoring the fact that these are spinning items which will be throwing out whatever super duper grease is put on them..

which will stay attached to the inside of the boot..
DOING NO GOOD for the friction surfaces which need them...

BUT oil in there , each time you stop.. will drip or splash some oil onto those surfaces...

That is why they use oil .
I think most of the Cars on the road right now that use CV Joints came from the Factory with Grease. Since they are all subjected to the same forces apparently Grease works.
With the exception of Mercedes I have seen no repair manual that shows pouring Oil into the CV Joints.

I also think grease becomes more fluid with heat and while it may not flow like the Oil does I have a feeling it moves around more then we think.
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  #23  
Old 01-20-2010, 09:52 PM
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Yep, MB used oil and grease.

I'd rather have oil in the joints since it has proven to work for 25+ years. However, I suspect the boot will fail before the joint wears out from lack of lub.

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